Association of health literacy with disease outcomes in inflammatory arthritis: a systematic review
Authors' conclusion
In people with IA, low health literacy is generally associated with worse outcomes including higher disease activity, mental health symptoms and disability, higher healthcare use, lower medication adherence, and lower use of technology.
Study context
- Population
- Adults with inflammatory arthritis; observational and qualitative studies and RCTs assessing health literacy or interventions targeting it
- Participants
- 16,402 adults29 studies
- Comparison
- Low vs higher health literacy
- Outcome
- Associations of low health literacy with IA outcomes
Methodological detailsvote-counting, Health literacy measures: Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (n = 13); Single Item Literacy Screener (n = 10); Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (n = 6); Health Literacy Questionnaire (n = 2), Mostly female participants, mean age 46 to 70 years; RA the most frequently reported inflammatory arthritis (IA)
- Vote-counting
- Health literacy measures: Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (n = 13); Single Item Literacy Screener (n = 10); Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (n = 6); Health Literacy Questionnaire (n = 2)
- Mostly female participants, mean age 46 to 70 years; RA the most frequently reported IA
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
- Higher disease activity
- More disability
- More mental health symptoms (including depression and anxiety)
- Higher healthcare use
- Lower medication adherence
- Lower use of internet, telehealth and technology
- Six main associations identified with low health literacy
Original publication
Association of health literacy with disease outcomes in inflammatory arthritis: a systematic review. Ann Rheum Dis. Published 11 September 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →